


Painted Vows

by Mesmeret



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Defector Armitage Hux, F/M, Female Kylo Ren, Fluff, Kylo Amidala, Makeup, Pining, Self-Esteem Issues, Snoke Free Zone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 12:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16197596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mesmeret/pseuds/Mesmeret
Summary: So this was supposed to be the Makeup and Wigs entry for Huxloween... but it kinda ran away from me.This is set in an AU with no Snoke but a First Order. Ben Solo was born female and ended up following her Grandmother's path of politics. Armitage Hux was a lowly officer thanks to being a bastard and ended up defecting to the Republic. General Organa takes him in because under the layers of self esteem issues, he's a great strategist. Kylo is smitten by him and is ready to get the ball rolling for the marriage courting. Armitage still thinks he's unworthy.Aka, that week I spent writing a lame makeup tutorial and way too much blushing and awkward flirting.





	Painted Vows

Armitage frowned at the sign on the door. He looked down at his data pad to see the same address but no hints to what was inside on the map application. 

_ Republic City Academy of Cosmetology and Aesthetics _

He shrugged to himself. The senator had been making comments about his skin. Maybe she was going to pamper him. His face heated up and he took a few seconds to compose himself before opening the door. To his horror, it wasn’t completely metal. It was glass with a one way privacy coat. The twilek receptionist was smiling at him with a knowing look, “Good morning. Are you here for the master class?”

Armitage walked up to the dark marble counter and took in the crowd of humanoids beyond the waiting room area. He didn’t see any signs of the senator and looked back at the twilek. Her placard said Erene. “Uh, I don’t know. I might be on the list? Armitage Hux?”

Erene gave a nod and entered his name on her computer. She gave a big smile, “Yes, you are. Your model is running a little late but here’s your kit for the class. First time?”

“Thank you and yes, first time doing any of this,” Armitage accepted the hefty black tote bag with the academy’s logo on it in silver. He didn’t dare look inside yet.

“Okay. So I’m guessing someone in your life decided you needed a style update?” Erene asked while getting up from her desk. Her black dress had some beads that clicked as she walked him to the gathering of humanoids. He ignored her and looked for Kylo amongst the humans. He started to realize that everyone around him were stunning. It may have been the lighting, but even the Saurin looked damn near cute with a soft green foundation all over her skull and shimmer on her spikes and cheeks. Her sunken eyes looked him up and down from their soft lilac rings before coming over.

“Hello, your name tag is in your bag. Feel free to use the station over there,” the saurin pointed at a vacant chair and table. Her name tag pinned to a brown tunic said Fila. Armitage gave a nod in thanks and Erene left him to be. He set the tote down on the table and looked for his name tag amongst the boxes of cosmetics. It was a lot! He wanted to read the packaging but felt intimidated by the crowd of 30 or so humanoids. He looked around at other tables and saw products and brushes laid out. He follow suit and started unpacking everything. Thankfully he was left alone to muse over each item.

Once he arranged the brushes in the cup like most of the others had, he jolted from a tap on his right shoulder. Turning to see who it was, he froze. Senator Kylo Ben Amidala was bare faced and wearing just a black cropped tank top, leggings, and boots. It wasn’t out of place for most of the humanoids in the room, but it was the senator! Even her most scantily arranged gowns had a yard or more fabric than this. Let alone a bra.

“Hey, sorry for being a little late. I got stuck at a security checkpoint. Glad you found the place on your own,” Kylo spoke softly in her deep voice. She looked down at Armitage’s arrangement of products. “Oh, good job. Though Rela prefers we have the products arranged by steps from right to left.”

He gave a nervous swallow as he tried not so look at her side boob as she rearranged the products. Words that were appropriate for the air couldn’t get out. She isn’t his boss. Her mom technically is. With that realization, a chill set in place and he could finally speak, “Why are we here?”

Kylo gave him a pout, “Armie, are you having second thoughts?”

Armitage blushed as a murky memory from the previous week became clear. Kylo was leaning against his desk rambling about how her mom was insisting on have Rey and Rose with her on a tour of refugee camps on a newly acquired planet for the Republic. Armitage was trying to focus on entering the general’s itinerary into the time management software instead of the long flowing skirt draped on his knee. She had placed a warm, gloved hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her lilting orange painted lips.

“ _ It will be a perfect time for us to start the process. _ ” 

“ _ Uh, yeah. Sure. Just message me where to be, I guess. _ ”

Back in the present, he tried to quip, “I thought you meant go to a day spa.”

Kylo gasped, “Oh! Yes, we should do that soon. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Armitage bit the inside of his cheek. Her smile with bare lips was making him remember a dirty joke from his cadet days before defecting. 

“Alright!” A Togruta with deep golden skin and the more common large ovals of cream on their face. They had painted their stripes on their montrails and lekku into a gradient with dark to light green from scalp to tips. Armitage squinted to see a name tag saying Rela. They clapped their hands and everyone went to their respective stations. “Good, good. Today we going to do an intensive on sculpting the client’s features into a humanoid standard of beauty. The main objective for skin is to create a solid, smooth base for our sculpting. We are then going to focus on the details that make humanoids their category. Since all of our models are fairly humanoid in skull structure, we will be focusing more on facial hair, eyelids, and lip shapes.”

Armitage was overwhelmed already and their teacher just introduced themselves. He looked at Kylo who had sat down in the chair facing the mirror. She smiled up at him and gave his trembling hand a gentle squeeze.

“First thing’s first, artists are all going to wash our hands at the basins!” Rela led the sixteen artists to the sinks behind the room divider. Armitage was startled to find shelves and shelves full of a whole rainbow of pigments. Colors he felt were identical to the next but had differing labels. When it was his turn to wash his hands, he made sure to use plenty of soap and scrub vigorously like how Rela demonstrated.

Back at their stations, Rela showed some tips on figuring out what state the client’s skin was at. Their model was a man with a cool olive complexion and hooded lids. They were talking about scaly skin when Armitage started tuning out and stared at Kylo’s cheeks. She whispered, “Don’t worry, I’m fairly balanced at the moment so you can start with the face wash on the very far top right.”

Looking around, he saw that most of the artists were starting to clean their models’ faces. He grabbed the bottle and read the instructions. He gave himself a small nod and pumped twice onto his left finger tips.

“Good, now rub until it froths and then rub circular motions all over my face,” Kylo informed.

He frowned but did as she told, “Why don’t you do this yourself?”

“Because I like it when you touch me,” Kylo responded as if it was a compliment. He was glad she closed her eyes because he couldn’t control his pained expression. They weren’t meant for each other. She was a princess and he was a cowardly bastard. He tried to ignore and downplay her flirting these past few months, but when she’s this blunt, he just aches. 

“Alright, lets grab a hot face towel in the caddies and wrap it around the face like this,” Rela demonstrated folding the towel in half long way and then wrapping it around the border of her model’s face and gently wipe off the face wash. “Then we use some cotton pads with toner to wipe the skin. Check the pads to make sure there is no more residue or old makeup. Then we are going to moisturize with gentle patting.”

Armitage grabbed a hot towel and very carefully wrapped it around Kylo’s face. Her sigh shot through him and he clenched the towel when wiping off the face wash. Her face was flush from the heat and, and. He grabbed the moisturizer and looked around to see how much others were applying. He saw everyone was making use of the little spoon that came with the jar to portion the cream. He tapped the cream on his hand and started to tap it into Kylo’s skin. It was suddenly far, far worse for him. She was staring into his eyes with a contented smile as he was covering her face with white cream that became translucent and drippy against her flushed skin. Kinda like- He screamed mentally instead of completing the thought. He tried to mindlessly tap the moisturizer all over.

“Good everyone. Now don’t forget the decolletage! I like to massage from chin down to the collar bones,” Rela was making little windmill motions on her client’s neck. Armitage groaned internally but followed suit. Kylo didn’t react except to close her eyes and lean back. He focused on looking at Rela instead of the exposed cleavage below him.

“We are now going to let the moisturizer absorb into the skin for about 15 minutes. This gives us time to color match foundation. For those who are pigmented outside of the neutral pink shades, Fila has your powder pigments ready to skin test. I personally have a recipe book for reference. I’ve been doing this since the Empire was a thing and I still get mixed up. But I prefer making a big batch in a tin so you have enough for touch ups and future applications.

If your model is human, you will be using the oil base to mix the pigments. For the beings who rely on their skin to be respiratory, we use concentrated salicylic and hyaluronic acids to manipulate the cell wall texture instead of painting the skin. So start out with the salicylic for the oilier zones and hyaluronic for the dryer zones. For primary and secondary hued skin, we will use the gel emollient. The trick is to mix the liquid into the pigments a drop at a time and very slowly. We want to create a doughy paste and then wait for it to self set.”

Armitage found it fascinating to mash a variety of pinks, yellows, and off white pigments with the oil. It took about five drops of oil to bind the pigments and he used the little fork like tool to squish it into a loaf. He sat it down and looked everywhere except Kylo. Rela was walking around to see how their students were doing.

When they came up to Kylo and him, they looked at the pigments with a small hum, “Looking good but you need two more drops or so. See how it’s starting to crack here? We need the oil to be absorbed by all of the pigment and mica powder.”

Armitage muttered a thanks and stirred the additional drops. Rela watched with a nod, “Good. Any questions?”

He looked at Kylo and then Rela, “I don’t know. This is all so new for me, to be honest.”

“Yeah, I kinda threw him into the deep end,” Kylo shrugged. 

Rela looked at her with a knowing look, “You do tend to expect the galaxy from everyone, Kylo. If anything seems confusing, feel free to wave myself or Fila over.”

“Okay, thanks,” he gave the teacher a smile that he hoped conveyed his gratitude and apology for his flushed face.

Rela went to the center of the room before continuing their lessons, “Now, for the pigment formulas, we have a tin of our pigment base. I usually use about an 8th measure into a half measure of a light, easily absorbable oil for coverage of discoloration and marks. Let’s mix that all together and tap the dome top foundation brush lightly against the foundation. Just a smidge so we can do a skin test along the jawline. If it looks good, we’re going to apply all over a thin coat. Then with the flat top brush, we’re going to buff the foundation into the skin. This is so we will have time to build up to the final coverage.”  

Kylo tilted her head as he dragged the brush down to her neck. The streak of foundation covered a deep brown mole. She just had the slight shadow of the raised skin. He squinted at the skin and foundation. It looked like a good match but he could tell there was a strip of foundation. Kylo’s cheek pulled into a grin, “Armie, it will do.”

He opened his mouth to retort but closed if fear of making a scene. He did gently whap her with the brush on the cheek. She giggled as he dabbed the brush into the foundation and applied the thin coat. He grabbed what he thought was the right brush and felt Kylo’s force nudge him to the correct brush. He mouthed a thank you to her as he mimicked the motion everyone was doing. Kylo flinched, “ _ A little gentler. _ ”

Armitage gave her a nod and lightened his hand. He was fascinated how the foundation seemed to lose its artificialness and meld with her skin. He wasn’t trying to notice how sweet her perfume was today.

“Good, now we are going to take the buff brush and lightly stamp more foundation on the areas of the face that need it more. Usually for discoloration,” Rela demonstrated with her model’s cheek. Armitage frowned at Kylo’s face. It seemed unnecessary to add more product. 

“It’s good as it is. I don’t really like having cake face. It makes me break out something awful the next day,” Kylo spoke while stretching a little in the seat. “You can close up the foundation tin and put the brushes over there.”

“Oh, okay,” he muttered and followed her instructions as Rela went around the room to look at everyone’s progress. They gave him a nod of approval and nothing more. He was relieved.

“Alright, we are now going to sculpt the face. Contouring is to darken while highlighting is to brighten. We want the face to have the illusion of high cheekbones, wide and bright eyes, a thin nose, and full lips. We also focus on the forehead of the humanoids with hairlines or lekkulines. For myself with my large montrails, I give myself the illusion of a larger forehead by highlighting most of my forehead and then contour with a thin line around the border,” Rela pointed out the deep gold shadow on their forehead with a makeup brush. He arched a brow in surprise. Now that he was really looking, their features were kinda disproportional. 

“We tend to use cream or powder products for contouring. I suggest very minimal contouring and highlighting for the skin respirators. I’ll come by to discuss where to place product. For everyone else, create these types of shapes depending on what face shape your model has,” Rela gestured to a projector wall that had some face types with lines of brown and white on them. “We will be using the sculpting palette with the custom pots for your model’s color palette. If the colors aren’t matching up, don’t panic, just wave over Fila. We will be using the broad angled contour brush for the contour and the narrower angled contour brush for the highlighting. Remember, a light line and then gently disperse the product to be a shadow or soft glow!”

He found Kylo to be a bit of a heart shape. Or was that his stupid infatuation?

“I am a heart shape,” Kylo spoke like she found out she was getting a new kitten. He ignored her best he could and grabbed the sculpting supplies. The little palette had a slightly grayish medium brown and a lighter version of Kylo’s foundation. He looked over at the picture once more before lightly tapping the brush into the contour cream. His first stroke was way too light and was a streaky mess along the top of Kylo’s forehead. He bit his lip in embarrassment and went over it a little firmer. He then tried wiggling the brush in circular motions. When it was okay, he moved on to the rest of the face.

Kylo stayed quiet for the whole process and Rela never came by to check on them. He was nervous but really getting into the whole painting aspect of makeup. Though Kylo was looking a little gaunt with all of the artificial shadows. He set down the contour brush and picked up the highlight brush. He didn’t notice the highlight cream had shimmer in it until it caught the light on the bridge of Kylo’s nose. He did his best to make a thin, steady line that didn’t go all the way to the tip. He accidentally went a little hard when blending and started to see the foundation pull, revealing the pink tinge of Kylo’s real skin. He froze and gave Kylo an apologetic look. She turned to the mirror with a frown that turned into a soft smile as she analyzed her nose.

“Oh, it’s fine. You went upwards with your brush stroke. Best to go downwards with nose highlight. Here, I’ll fix it,” Kylo grabbed the brush from his hand and did three strokes on her nose before leaning back into the chair. He took the brush and looked at her nose. It had no imperfections now. He never wanted to nip it between his teeth before but the notion seemed divine now. Though the thought of tasting the foundation was enough to get him back on track. 

Stupid Kylo wiggled her nose at him.

He highlighted her cheekbones and brow bone with much more ease. He stepped back and saw the gauntness had disappeared like he hoped. She looked familiar but a little different than her usual painted face. 

“Now, we are going to get into the details of the face! I like to go brow to lip. For those who already have brows, we are going to make them look a bit more uniform with powder and gel. We are going to use the small angle brush and the brow powder to lightly brush the hairs into a tame direction that complements the eyes. Then use the clear gel to comb the hairs into place. For those without, we can draw in a brow or not. Here’s some reference steps for everyone. I suggest using the brow pencils provided to stencil and draw the base hairs before filling in with powder and an angle brush,” Rela explained while filling in and combing their model’s brows.

Armitage felt relieved that Kylo had similar brows as the model and that he didn’t have to try to draw them on her. Her brows were a little fuller on the inner aspect and got sparser on the outer edge. He didn’t want to give her dark brown rectangles so he lightly flicked the brush to create soft points. He stepped back to make sure they looked a bit even. He hummed to himself as he got out the tube of clear gel. It was odd stuff but did the trick. He looked around to see how everyone else was doing. He felt even more thankful Kylo had brows. There were a couple of artists scowling at their models as they tried to draw on the brow bones. Rela caught his eyes and came over.

“Looking good. You stayed well within her natural brow but going beyond would exaggerate her features. The sculpting looks pretty good though I saw she helped you out a bit. What happened?” 

“Kylo thinks I went upwards on the nose highlight. I started to see her skin as the foundation was pulled while I was rubbing it in,” he blushed. “That sounded weird. I don’t know. Kylo?”

Rela shook their head, “No, I understand what you meant, Armitage. It was most likely an upward stroke but also how much product you applied to the skin. But that takes practice. I think you’re ready to apply some blush and then powder. Are you okay on your own for the rest of the class? The eye and lip looks are up to Kylo. She’ll be a better teacher than I with her standards.”

Armitage made his upteenth gulp but gave a nod. Kylo has been wearing makeup forever. So it should be fine. Right?

Rela gave them a smile before going to the next station.

“Get that big fluffy brush with the narrow long handle, Armie,” Kylo pointed to the brush. “And the pink compact. Yeah. On the apples of my cheeks here with a very light hand.”

Armitage held the two items and watched Kylo point at her cheeks while she made a weird smile. He snorted a laugh, “Oh-Okay.”

“Shut up, this is how it’s really done!” Kylo kept up the weird smile as he applied the rosy blush.

She let her face relax for a second before instructing him on how to set her face. He grabbed the largest brush of the set and opened a compact of white looking pressed powder. He swirled the brush into the powder and pressed it onto her cheeks. To his surprise, the powder was translucent. She pointed to her forehead and chin and he followed with the brush.

“Great. We’ll just leave that there while you do my eyes. I think something simple. Let’s look at the eye palette,” Kylo pointed to the large black palette. He opened it and saw 35 shades of the rainbow. Kylo made a happy noise, “Nice! You know what, have fun and come up with something.”

He glared at her, “Thank you so much for your generosity.”

She looked hurt and he muttered an apology. She looked into his eyes, “I hope you’re not as dense as you’ve been acting today. You do know the implications of all of this, right?”

He blushed deeply and looked at the eyeshadows whispering, “I, I do. But why me? I’m nothing.”

“I hate that you believe that, Armie,” She whispered back. “But you’re who I truly want by my side forever.”

He sighed as his body grew hot and his brain fuzzy with her words. He grabbed a slim brush and dipped it in a light warm brown. Kylo watched him with a closed eye as he ran the brush along her lid. He did the same for the other eye. He used the same brush and packed a bronze shade and patted it all over the lid and crease. He thought of an autumn gala look she wore two years back. The night she insisted he danced with her. He had just been fully accepted as a defector from the First Order. She was the only one who looked at him in the eyes that night and for the following year. It wasn’t a surprise she became his everything, but it was unreasonable for a young senator in line to be a queen to see him as such. 

He closed his eyes trying to remember if it was a plum or navy on her outer corners. He opted for the navy to contrast the orange in the bronze and brown. It was a bit bright of a blue so he went it with the black to dull it. He remembered there was bronze on her lower lids so he grabbed a fine detail brush to make it so. He stepped back and saw she was tearing up with a small smile. He blushed realizing she recognized what he was doing.

“You have such a great eye for detail, Armie,” she whispered while grabbing a q-tip to dab the tears from her waterline. 

He couldn’t help placing a hand on her arm, “What should I do next?”

She looked into the mirror, “I think eyeliner and mascara next. Use the liner pen instead of the gel pot. Just go slowly. I’ll do my best to stay still.”

He grabbed a pen and opened it to find that it was the brow pencil. They both chuckled as he got the correct pen. Her gala look had been a very strong angle of eyeliner. But since it was still the afternoon, he went for a more demure line. More of an emphasis on her lashes. 

Wow, they were long. He had to push them around to get a clean fill. Once they were even, he applied the mascara with extreme caution. Kylo seemed completely unaware of how dangerous it was. Then again she used mascara daily. Due to his apprehension, he smeared the mascara on her left cheek. He apologized and felt like the universe had spoken.

They were truly incompatible for marriage. He ruined the courtship they just started.

Kylo burst into laughter causing everyone in the room to look over. A couple of beings joined in and Armitage wanted to flee. Rela saved him and came over while hushing everyone.

They looked at Kylo with a stern glare before speaking kindly to Armitage, “It’s okay. This is a great teaching moment. We’re going to wait for the mascare to completely dry and then wipe it off with a damp q-tip. Interesting eye look. I remember it was a plum lip, correct?”

Kylo smiled with pride, “Yep! He even remembered it was navy on the eyes.”

“I used a different palette for that evening. But it looks pretty similar. Good job, Armitage. Fila! I need you to get a 7E1698 lipstick and liner!”

He blushed at Rela’s approval. Kylo took his hand and squeezed it. Fila came over with the lip products with a small nod. They let go so he could take the lip liner and carefully line her lips. He knew this process thanks to a near daily tease of Kylo applying or touching up her lips by his desk. She’d start with tracing her lower lip and then creating an upright half circle just above the center of her upper lip. Then connected the outer point of the lips to the ends of the half circle. She’d lightly fill in her lips before rubbing them. 

He boldly rubbed his finger on her lips. Her eyes widened but she was fighting a smile. He applied the lipstick but let her rub her lips against themselves as he set down the lip products.

“Okay, last but not least, it’s time to brush off the powder with the big brush,” Kylo spoke with a slight warble in her deep voice. She was looking around for something it seemed but kept it to herself. Armitage took the brush and started lightly flicking away the excess powder. Once her face was put together, he stepped back for the final time. She looked beautiful and he did that. He shook his head and rubbed his face. It was a bit of a stressful hour to say the least.

Kylo giggled, “Armie, you smeared lip liner on your cheek.”

“Oh, kriff,” he muttered and leaned over to look at the mirror. Sure enough he had a smear of plum on his cheek. He frowned looking at the bottles of makeup removers. He was about to grab the oily looking one when Kylo leaned in and kissed his cheek. He jolted and stared at her in shock. He quickly looked around to see everyone was busy focusing on their makeup. He looked at the mirror to see Kylo’s lipstick mostly covering the smear.

He stood there slightly hunched with fingers ghosting the waxy imprint. Kylo looked at him through the mirror with a loving smile. He let himself return it and she immediately pulled him to her side. He lost his balance a little and fell into her lap. She leaned forward for the makeup remover, “As much as I love the look of you wearing my kisses, we should get this removed before it stains. I’m getting a bit hungry and there’s a great kebab shack down the street.”

Armitage gave her a nod as she wiped his face clean. He got up to put away the supplies while Kylo went over to Rela to thank them for witnessing the archaic Nabooian courting ritual. They seemed to not mind and requested dibs to do the wedding party’s makeup. Rela wouldn’t work on Kylo or Armitage. It would be the pair’s responsibility to paint each other for crucial events. 

A tradition that seemed far less daunting for Armitage.


End file.
